A carbon material may be prepared by loading a mass of carbon particles in a mold and compression-molding the mass or sintering the mass in the mold under pressure. The carbon particles may be mixed with a binder to form the mass. Sintering may be achieved by passing a resistive-heating current across the mass between a pair of electrodes which are driven towards one another to compress the mass. Resistive heating may be replaced by induction heating. Carbon materials have many fields of application.